Education

B.S., California Institute of Technology
PhD.,  University of Pennsylvania
M.A. (Honorary), University of Oxford

Research Description

The research in the laboratory is all directed at issues of thalamic functional organization and thalamocortical relationships. We use a broad interdisciplinary approach, attempting to answer the same or closely related questions with several different techniques. These involve neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and behavioral methods. More specifically, we use light and electron microscopic techniques to explore various circuits; we use in vitro recordings from brain slices to study cell and synaptic properties; and we record from single thalamic neurons in awake, behaving animals to determine the relationship between behavioral state and thalamic functioning. 
The research performed can best be appreciated by understanding the theoretical framework that drives it. Several related hypotheses, many generated in collaboration with Ray Guillery, currently at the University of Wisconsin, serve as the driving force for most experiments in the laboratory. 

Some Selected Papers

Sherman SM, Guillery RW (2004) The visual relays in the thalamus. In: The Visual Neurosciences (Chalupa LM, Werner JS, eds), pp 565-591. MIT Press. 

Sherman SM, Guillery RW (2003) Thalamus. In: Synaptic Organization of the Brain (Shepherd GM, ed), pp in press. Oxford University Press. 

Guillery RW, Sherman SM (2002) Thalamic relay functions and their role in corticocortical communication: Generalizations from the visual system. Neuron 33: 1-20.(PubMed) (pdf) 

Guillery RW, Sherman SM (2002) The thalamus as a monitor of motor outputs. Philos Trans R Soc Lond [Biol ] 357: 1809-1821.(PubMed) (pdf) 

Sherman SM, Guillery RW (2002) The role of thalamus in the flow of information to cortex. Philos Trans R Soc Lond [Biol ] 357: 1695-1708.(PubMed) (pdf) 

Sherman SM, Guillery RW (2001) Exploring the Thalamus. San Diego: Academic Press. 

Sherman SM (2001) Tonic and burst firing: dual modes of thalamocortical relay. Trends in Neurosci 24: 122-126.(PubMed)(pdf) 

Sherman SM, Guillery RW (1998) On the actions that one nerve cell can have on another: Distinguishing "drivers" from "modulators". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95: 7121-7126.(PubMed)(pdf)

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